Capita, a business processing outsource company, has integrated Barclays' mobile-payment service Pingit into its payment solutions, becoming the first strategic partner in the public sector to go live, according to a press release.

Working in partnership with Barclays, Capita is offering its existing payments clients, operating across the public and private sectors, the option to receive payments from their customers via the app.

By integrating Pingit into its payments solution, Capita's clients can benefit from:

• services such as council tax, rent or waste collection, paid for by customers scanning the QR code printed on their bill using a smartphone or tablet;
• bills paid by customers scanning them at one of Barclays' 150 QR scanning ATMs — with more QR scanning ATMs being rolled out over the coming months;
• customers who do not have a QR code on their bill, paying bills via the app;
• students paying their college or university for a range of services, such as course fees, exam re-sits, trips and accommodation using their preferred device;
• systems being updated with details of who has paid for what, with no need for any rekeying of data, making it easier and quicker to receive and track payments; and
• details of all transactions made using Pingit recorded securely within Capita's income management solution.

This is in addition to other established managed service channels, such as telephone and Internet payments, ensuring all payments can be easily reconciled.

"Capita and Barclays already enjoy a strong relationship, and this partnership is a natural extension of that," Jon Peart, payments director of Capita's software services business, said in a statement. "We know that half of all U.K. adults now have a smartphone and almost half of U.K. households are set to own tablets by the end of 2014. It is important that we provide our clients with payment solutions that allow their customers to make payments in the way they want to. Adding Pingit to our range of mobile payment solutions was an obvious choice for us, and we look forward to rolling out additional functionality later this year."

Barclays Pingit has been downloaded 2.5 million times, with over £350 million of payments being processed through the platform. Users do not have to bank with Barclays, and it is free to download and use the app.